The well at the "other farm" has never been very strong. There are three families living in the farm house, and we house our dry cows and heifers there as well...anywhere from 20-25 animals at any given time, and that takes a lot of water!
Several years ago, a new well was drilled at the "other farm". After drilling to somewhere around 500 feet, they got water...not very much, but enough that the second well could be used to supplement the old one. However in dry weather, there just isn't enough of a water supply to meet the demand. What to do?
For the past few weeks, we tried this...
A local company that supplies water, parked one of their tankers in the meadow. This tanker holds 4500 gallons of water. There was a hose trickling water slowly into the well to supply water for the house, and Jim filled this stock tank with a hose directly from the tanker. The cows quickly learned where to find their water...
The water tanker has been refilled several times, with no sign of the well making a strong recovery, even with the several inches of rain that we've had.
Next option...
Drilling a new well is very expensive, and with the history of trouble with finding water, the family decided to try something new...
Hydrofracking the well...
(you can read about the process if you click on this link. I understand the basics of how it works, but it's explained very clearly on the website from the company we used. Better than me trying to explain it!)
This morning, the plumber came and pulled the well pump. The pump itself will at the least need to be repaired, and possible replaced...
The tank truck to the right is filled with 5000 gallons of water which will be used in the hydrofracking process...
Uncle Ray watching...
Here they have their equipment lowered into the well, after the pump and piping has been removed...
Adding pipes to lower into the well...
Hooked up to the water tanker and ready to go...
Watching the pressure gauges...
Almost immediately at the first level, the water pressure dropped from 500 psi to 0 psi. That, in the words of the boss, was "a home run"! A large fracture occurred, allowing the water to escape, opening up a channel for more water to flow into the well.
They flushed the fracture with 2500 gallons of water, added more pipe to descend to a lower level and repeated the process.
Now the pump just needs to be replaced, and we'll hope for a sufficient water supply. That will make everyone happy!
Hope it's a true home run. Plenty of water is a blessing.
ReplyDeleteWOW I know their is a lot of hydrofracking for oil out here in Colorado but now fracking for water. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow that is amazing!! Who knew you could do that for water. I know out here that they do that all of the time for oil. That is so good that you got water. I do hope it solves all of your water issues.
ReplyDeleteSure beats lugging all that water;) Cool to read about though.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope it works, there's nothing worse than not enough water!
ReplyDeleteOh I hope it works for you. It is very scary when you don't have water for our animals.We are watching our ponds getting lower and lower. I am glad we do not have Dairy cattle,having beef I know you use a lot more water. I have not looked in our well I think if I don't look it will be fine:)
ReplyDeleteI do hope this works for you and August will be a rainy month for a lot of us. Can't wait to hear the update. B
Hi Alica...
ReplyDeleteWow! What a process! Sounds like you are going to be ok .... for now.
We do really need moisture though.
I'm going to go to the link and learn more about hydrofracking.
Praying for rain!!
Kerin
Wow, hopefully it works out for you guys!
ReplyDeleteI pray for you and your water supply.
ReplyDeletePraying for you! We have a 120 foot deep well, and so far, plenty of water, but we have had no appreciable rain for over 3 months now. We have talked about "what ifs" and are going to buy a water tank "just in case" we have to haul water from town (which we see others doing already).
ReplyDeleteWe have a well at our house we use only for watering the garden and this summer it's been running low every time we use it, so we have to turn it off and wait for the water to come back up which takes several hours. Down at the pasture, we've added additional stock tanks and an extra pump to one well, and added a stock tank and pump to an existing, but not used well. Fun summer eh? Makes us appreciate rain all the more.
ReplyDelete